Sailing with Kids: Snacks, Safety, and a Side of Chaos

You’ve truly hit the jackpot when the kids are begging to go sailing this weekend. It was a learning curve for us with our little ones, and our success came when we focused on making the boat their happy place. Bedtimes get stretched, messes are acceptable, and snacks are plentiful.

We quickly discovered that if you don’t have a five-pound bag of snacks for a day trip, you’re setting yourself up for mutiny. Cheetos and chocolate were short-lived mistakes, now replaced by fruit trays and chips. Kids are bored? Snacks. Kids are fighting? Snacks. Wind is picking up? Reef—and then snacks.

Hourly dance parties are a must, and we carry a curated selection of small plastic buckets to fill with water in the cockpit (an endlessly amusing activity). As they get older, your windscoop can be cleverly re-purposed as a mini headsail—something they can fly on their own with a bit of jury-rigging. This doubles as a peaceful downwind sail back into Collins Bay under your baby-sized spinnaker.

Let’s talk safety: Have a plan in place for when—not if—a child falls overboard. We preach Safety Briefings in both commercial and pleasurecraft boating courses, and it’s time to make them part of your family’s routine too. What is everyone’s role onboard if someone goes in? When was the last time you practiced a figure-eight recovery under sail?

My much-better-half will tell you how annoying I’ve become over the years repeating the same safety spiel—but spending a minute to go over this with the crew (and kids) before you leave the dock just might save a life one day.

We haven’t had an overboard situation yet, but there have been close calls—especially when rules aren’t being followed. The mariner’s rule, “one hand for the boat,” applies to kids just as much as adults. We also have a simple but essential rule: no kids outside the cockpit when there are whitecaps.

Life jackets on Tropika are non-negotiable. They go on in the parking lot and stay on until we’re back at the car. Those cottage hand-me-downs from your own childhood? Not good enough. Invest in life jackets that fit properly and are comfortable. Each child should have at least two onboard—because one always ends up soaked. Infants and toddlers need models with head flotation and a top handle. It offers peace of mind and, more importantly, a grab-and-go retrieval method if they fall off a dock.

We started doing overnights when our daughter was three months old. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but we made some of our best memories during those trips. V-berths become cozy nap zones with a strategic stack of pillows. USB-charged fans from Amazon offer white noise and keep things cool wherever they fall asleep. And yes, you can mount a Jolly Jumper to the boom (at anchor only, please)—it’s hilarious and oddly effective once they start bouncing.

One of our favourite rituals, now that the kids are five and seven, happens when we take the port turn past the MH4 buoy into Big Sandy Bay. That’s the moment they leap into action, tossing out 50-foot floating lines so we can all take turns body-pulling behind the boat on the final approach. Just don’t attempt it above three knots if you plan on keeping your bathing suit on.

-Graham

Article published in the CBYC Mixer, May 2025